The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra’s plea against her expulsion as a Lok Sabha member over alleged misconduct in the cash-for-query case till January 3.
Mahua Moitra, who was elected from the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal, was expelled on December 8 over cash-for-query charges. She was charged for her “direct involvement” in “unethical” conduct.
In her defence, Moitra has alleged “substantial illegality” and “arbitrariness” by the Lok Sabha ethics committee, which recommended the action against her.
On Friday, her case was heard by a bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna. Friday is also the last working day of the Supreme Court as it closes for the winter break.
The hearing comes after Moitra’s counsel, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, made hectic attempts in the Supreme Court on Wednesday to get a hearing date on her petition even as the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud assured the petitioner that the court would look into the request for urgent listing.
Mahua Moitra’s expulsion
The Lok Sabha had expelled Mahua Moitra with a voice vote amid a walkout by opposition MPs, adopting an ethics committee report that recommended her expulsion for sharing her login details, and accepting gifts and possibly cash from businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
In her petition, Mahua Moitra had challenged the disqualification and pointed out not being allowed to defend herself in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on the findings of the ethics panel.
The TMC leader found herself embroiled in the controversy after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla in September on the basis of a complaint by Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehradai, who alleged that she accepted money and favours to ask questions in Parliament.
In an affidavit to the ethics committee on October 19, Darshan Hiranandani claimed that Moitra provided him with her login ID and password for the Lok Sabha members’ website. The CBI has already filed a preliminary FIR in the case.
